The present invention relates to ball joints, such as ball joints used in automotive suspension systems.
There has been considerable activity towards the development of ball joints that are inexpensive, light in weight and reliable. Sugiyama U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,101 and Broszat U.S. Pat. No. 5,152,628 disclose ball joint links utilizing polymeric housings that are typically injection molded.
White U.S. Pat. No. 3,023,038 discloses a ball stud that employs a ball that is separately formed from and then assembled on the stud.
Hellon U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,428, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses a ball joint assembly that uses a threaded collar and a staked washer to provide a retention feature for a boot that extends from the ball stud to the ball joint housing.
The preferred embodiments described below include a number of improvements over the prior art of the previous section. These improvements will be described in detail below. Here, by way of introduction it can be said that the improvements relate to a new sealing approach that differs from the conventional boot, to a new housing/ball socket assembly that is secured together in a way that provides strength advantages, to a new ball stud/ball assembly that provides high strength and cost advantages, to a new ball joint housing/link assembly that provides cost and strength advantages, and to a new approach for retaining a boot on a ball stud that again provides cost advantages.
This section has been intended by way of introduction only, and is not intended to limit the scope of the following claims.